Question

For some reason, when I play Battlefield 3 my RAM usage keeps zapping up to 98% usage, making the game go into an umplayable state and taking about 5 minutes to quit from it. The only way to remedy it then is by a restart, otherwise Windows says that >80% is being used all the time - even though, as the image below shows, there aren't any open processes using that much.

Anyone know why this is? I have CleanMem installed, but even when I run that it goes back down to 80% then shoots back up again. It only takes about 15 minutes of playing on BF3 for it to start this My PC specs are in my signature, and I'm running Windows 8 Pro 64-bit. Any help is appreciated!

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[quote name='Detection' timestamp='1357498384' post='595436624']
What is the RAM usage like without CleanMem installed?
[/quote]It's exactly the same

[quote name='ArialBlue' timestamp='1357498401' post='595436626']
No image.
Probably GPU driver bug eating up all your RAM?
4GB ram is mediocre at best these days.
[/quote]I've added direct links to the images in the first post.

It could be a GPU driver bug, I'm on 12.11 Beta 11. It's really annoying because there haven't been any new drivers for AMD GPU's (at least for the 6xxx series) since the end of November, and there's quite a few bugs with some games (particularly Assassin's Creed 3 I've heard) that still haven't been fixed

I haven't seen anyone else with this problem though on this driver version, so I don't think it's a widespread problem. And I do intend to get more RAM when I upgrade to Haswell in July

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[quote name='Detection' timestamp='1357499545' post='595436658']
Does it only happen with BF3 ?

If so, is it updated / patched to the latest version?

Can't remember if this option is available in Win 8, but at the bottom of the task manager it could say "Show processes from all users"

Check that box and see if it displays any other processes

Also try using this process explorer
[url="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx"]http://technet.micro...s/bb896653.aspx[/url]
[/quote]
It seems to be quite selective, I know it happens with Battlefield but other games seem to be a little hit and miss

I haven't restarted yet, and the memory usage is still at 98% according to Task Manager. Here's what Process Explorer shows:
[img]http://gyazo.com/19db9a11537ba6eacb3bcd7f303b085b.png?1357499994[/img]
Direct Link: http://gyazo.com/19db9a11537ba6eacb3bcd7f303b085b

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[quote name='xendrome' timestamp='1357500343' post='595436670']
You have a ton of Chrome instances loaded...
[/quote]yeah chrome does that (separate instance for every tab and every plugin/extension you have pretty much)

also @OP regardless of the problem you should really think about upgrading to at lease 8gb of ram

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Holy Chrome instances. Honestly, I think it could be a combination of your apps loaded, plus the game. [b]Do not forget that Windows Processes uses memory too. [/b]Take this in retrospect. My system is using, with Chrome running and background services (including MS Windows and non-MS services), about 2.8GB of RAM at all times. Of course, my laptop also has 16GB of RAM and doesn't use a PageFile.

I would imagine Battlefield 3 needs at least 1 to 2GB RAM at a minimum, depending on your graphic settings. With that, plus your apps and background services running, you're probably using up all your memory. RAM is dirt cheap .. so, can't you spring for 8GB to hold you over until your upgrade this summer?

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[quote name='Brando212' timestamp='1357500673' post='595436686']
yeah chrome does that (separate instance for every tab and every plugin/extension you have pretty much)
[/quote]

Yeah but he has a lot of stuff open... honestly, wouldn't it be a lot easier to troubleshot this if he closed some apps before taking a screenshot. Normal memory troubleshooting dictates you close all your open apps first, so we can see exactly what is going on without a bunch of open apps messing up the info/stats.

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[quote name='rkenshin' timestamp='1357500801' post='595436688']
Of course, my laptop also has 16GB of RAM and doesn't use a PageFile.

[/quote]

You shouldn't disable the page file, no matter how much ram you have, Windows uses it for various purposes. But you'd first want to educate yourself on how it fully works first.. http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx

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[quote name='rkenshin' timestamp='1357500801' post='595436688']
Holy Chrome instances. Honestly, I think it could be a combination of your apps loaded, plus the game. [b]Do not forget that Windows Processes uses memory too. [/b]Take this in retrospect. My system is using, with Chrome running and background services (including MS Windows and non-MS services), about 2.8GB of RAM at all times. Of course, my laptop also has 16GB of RAM and doesn't use a PageFile.

I would imagine Battlefield 3 needs at least 1 to 2GB RAM at a minimum, depending on your graphic settings. With that, plus your apps and background services running, you're probably using up all your memory. RAM is dirt cheap .. so, can't you spring for 8GB to hold you over until your upgrade this summer?

But, that's just how I see it.
[/quote]
Yes, I have many, many Chrome tabs open at a time. But I always do, and I still have well under 40% RAM usage. It's never been a problem before

I probably am using all my memory, but I don't know why the memory usage has stuck at high and refused to go down even though it's closed. It has done before, but for the past few days it seems to be doing this (and I haven't changed anything on my configuration).

[quote name='xendrome' timestamp='1357500343' post='595436670']
You have a ton of Chrome instances loaded...

Doesn't 39 seem like a lot? and if I add up the memory usage just from those visible in the screenshot, is 512MB of ram alone.
[/quote]Yus, but it's never been a problem before D:

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[quote name='xendrome' timestamp='1357501023' post='595436694']
You shouldn't disable the page file, no matter how much ram you have, Windows uses it for various purposes. But you'd first want to educate yourself on how it fully works first.. [url="http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx"]http://blogs.technet...17/3155406.aspx[/url]
[/quote]

I've never had the pagefile enabled when I have 16GB of RAM and an SSD on my personal systems, and I've never had a single problem ever (desktop or laptop). And yes, I know how it works, and I've done the research and seen both sides of it. But thanks anyways.

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OK, I've tried with Chrome closed and most things from my tray (less than I have on startup when I use not much RAM) and it's still above 80%. Here's Task Manager:
[img]http://gyazo.com/328461d784ff8cb9cd7114c4a3ee801c.png[/img]

I just don't know why it's not going down, I've never had this problem before.

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[quote name='Livin in a box' timestamp='1357501618' post='595436700']
OK, I've tried with Chrome closed and most things from my tray (less than I have on startup when I use not much RAM) and it's still above 80%. Here's Task Manager:
[img]http://gyazo.com/328461d784ff8cb9cd7114c4a3ee801c[/img]

I just don't know why it's not going down, I've never had this problem before.
[/quote]

I can't see that image

Have you scanned for malware (Malwarebytes)

Have you ran a RAM test such as [url="http://www.memtest.org/"]Memtest86+[/url] ?

What do you have enabled in MSCONFIG ? (Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab)

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[quote name='Detection' timestamp='1357501781' post='595436702']
I can't see that image

Have you scanned for malware (Malwarebytes)

Have you ran a RAM test such as [url="http://www.memtest.org/"]Memtest86+[/url] ?

What do you have enabled in MSCONFIG ? (Start > Run > msconfig > startup tab)
[/quote]
Fffff, here are the 2 images:
http://gyazo.com/90add8d4ce745168643126cc56f37041
http://gyazo.com/328461d784ff8cb9cd7114c4a3ee801c

I have scanned yesterday, nothing here.

I haven't run a memory test, is this a sign of dying RAM? It doesn't seem like it

In MsConfig, I have it like this:
[img]http://gyazo.com/b0497d1131ae3479478f1db8918651fb.png?1357502012[/img]

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[quote name='Detection' timestamp='1357502936' post='595436736']
Not to play BF3, just to see if your RAM use is back to normal idling without running anything

Possible a driver is doing it and safe mode only loads essential drivers, not 3rd party ones
[/quote]It's fine if I restart now, it's just puzzling me why Battlefield is causing it to rise and stick at this [quote name='ArialBlue' timestamp='1357503192' post='595436752']
Driver related memory consumption is NOT shown in the Task Manager.
[/quote]It must be something driver related, but I don't know why it doesn't happen on some other games though, unless it's a strange Battlefield bug